Thursday, July 10, 2008

Now Playing - 1944

This magazine ad for “Since You Went Away” (1944) was published in June of that year, for the film’s release in Hollywood that month, and nationwide release in July. It appears to be a fairly modest ad for all the attention producer David O. Selznick lavished on the film, the first of his many attempts to top the spectacle of “Gone With the Wind” which haunted him as much as it gratified him.

It may not have garnered the same box office or critical acclaim that “Gone With the Wind” did, but I would guess that through TV, DVD and VHS, more people have seen “Since You Went Away” and have seen it more often. It seems to have become a sentimental favorite of many in a way even the magnificent “Gone With the Wind” has not. What are your thoughts?

2 comments:

Tom
said...

I can't agree that more people will have seen Since You Went Away than Gone with the Wind. I understand why it could be a sentimental favourite, but when I saw it I thought it was overrated. I much prefer Claudette in her scewball roles.

Hi, Tom, thanks for your comments. Claudette had some terrific screwball roles, but a few pretty heavy weepies in there, too. She was great at comedy.

What I mean by more people seeing "Since You Went Away" is that GWTW is not shown on TV nearly as often over the past few decades, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s when GWTW was still presented as a major television event. Even though it is now readily available, despite the deserved reverence for the film, I just have a feeling less people "make the committment", if you will, of watching it.

I think the same can be said of "Citizen Kane" which most critics laud as the best movie ever, but which I think is viewed less often than other films.

In any case, due to financial difficulties, I believe Mr. Selznick gave up his rights to GWTW early on, so were he around to profit by his residuals today, it would be due to "Since You Went Away."

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Recent Comments on Past Posts:

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Beautiful piece, Jacqueline, about yet another movie from the Unjustly Forgotten file. I agree a video release is decades overdue, (What is wrong with Universal Home Video? You'd think the only movies they ever made were monsters and Abbott & Costello. And don't even get me started on the pre-'48 Paramounts they're sitting on.) I count myself lucky to have scored a decent 16mm print on eBay some years back; otherwise it would have been a good 40 years since I saw it.

I happened upon this piece and wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading it. Really a great appreciation of a wonderful movie. Raoul Walsh is one of my favorite directors and this is the first of his movies I ever remember seeing--it was on the big screen back in 1952 so I guess that dates me but a movie like this was ideal for my age, both for the adventure and romance.

I guess I'm going to be busy reading all your blogs that touch on events I'm familiar with.

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I suppose we filmed this around 1959-1960 which is not that long after the ending of the war. Reconstruction in Europe was far from accomplished. For the audience in 1961 this history was still a part of everyone's life.

I was overwhelmed sitting in that set and listening to the greatest actors of that generation orate day after day... an endless live theater.